Opinion: how many Xiaomi Redmi and Mi3 phones were sold upon their launches in Singapore?

Xiaomi sold out its Redmi smartphones eight minutes after its online store went live at noon today.

Yes. Eight short minutes. Don’t act so surprised, we weren’t. Last year, the flash sale also occurred in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan where consumers snapped up the device, dubbed as Hongmi, within 10 minutes. A feat that’s worth bragging about, and akin to what Apple has been doing with its iPhones and iPads on its launch days.

Case of low supply, high demand?

How many Redmis did Xiaomi prepare for the Singapore launch? That’s a question that Xiaomi hasn’t been able to answer when we checked in with the Chinese company. Looking at the numbers, 100,000 units were sold in China within 4 minutes and 5 seconds, 10,000 units in Hong Kong within 36 seconds and Taiwanese consumers snapped up 10,000 units within 10 minutes.

The numbers look huge, but considering the population size and smartphone penetration of these developed countries, the launch supply was probably a small percentage of the number of users hoping to buy the budget smartphone.

Compared to China, Hong Kong and Taiwan, Singapore’s lower population size could mean that there were less Redmi smartphones assigned for the launch.

Makes sense, if the company isn’t fully aware of the logistics required to fulfill its two to three day delivery promise. Plus, without a physical warehouse (which Xiaomi confirmed is in the pipeline) in Singapore, we hazard a guess that Xiaomi had to limit its launch numbers to manage consumer expectations.

Kudos to Xiaomi

Hypothetically, even if there were only 1000 units sold during the Singapore launch, that’s S$169,000 worth of phones sold within eight minutes. We’re not denying that’s a worthy achievement.

What we do know is Xiaomi’s official sales statement, which explained that the company is still learning about the market behaviour, sales reaction, and has plans to optimise its business processes including e-commerce, logistics and customer support.

The next round of sales for the Redmi will be announced on their Facebook page. Will the situation repeat itself for the Mi3 launch on 7th March? We won’t be surprised if Xiaomi’s flagship model is wiped off the virtual shelves in eight minutes or even less.

Update 07/03/2014: As predicted. Xiaomi's flagship, the Mi3, was sold out in two minutes. Again, the Chinese company didn't reveal how many Mi3s were sold out in those two minutes. For all we know, maybe they only sold 100 units. If you missed it, don't fret, there'll be more units available in the weeks to come.